He was born on December 7, 1940 in Rize. Graduated from Law School from Istanbul University.
He was President of Istanbul University Faculty of Law Student Community and President of the National Turkish Student Association in the 48th term. He became Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Union Foundation. He is still the President of the Founders Council of the Union Foundation. He is the Founding Member of the Turkish Volunteer Organizations Foundation and is still the President of the Founders Board. Yalova University and Recep Tayyip Erdogan University gave him the title of "Honorary Doctor." He was a member of Istanbul Commerce University Board of Trustees. He is a Founder of the Science Distribution Foundation, a member of the Science Distribution Council and a member of the High Advisory Board in Business World Foundation. He is the Chairman of the Founding Board of the Development Foundation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University. He was on the executive board and the executive council chairman of industrial and commercial companies. He served as Minister Counselor in the Ministry of Labor.
He was elected as deputy of Istanbul in the 20th and 21st terms. He served in the Refah Party and Fazilet Party as the Group President. He was a member of the Constitutional Commission and the National Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commission. He served as the 54th Minister of Culture. He was in charge of the Presidency of AK Party Central Disciplinary Committee.
He was elected as the Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in the 26th term as Istanbul Deputy.
Kahraman speaks English and is the father of four.
July 15 process
After the coup attempt was known, some ministers, members of council and parliament arrived, especially Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman. Upon the invitation of Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman, four party MPs and ministers were gathered at the General Assembly. During the time that people were resisting the coup on the streets, deputies were resisting in the Parliament, bombs dropped on the TBMM campus.
About three of the ten bombs dropped on the TBMM campus from aircrafts, on the night of July 15 FETÖ coup attempt, heavily damaged the building. Bombs were dropped on the Presidency, on floors of CHP and MHP groups and the garden.
As the bombs posed danger, with the warnings of security forces, İsmail Kahraman went down to the shelter along with ministers and deputies. Kahraman and deputies spent the night in the shelter. After six hours of waiting, they were informed that the danger had vanished. Kahraman and deputies left the shelter at 09:30 and returned to the General Assembly.
Historical moments, unforgettable proclamation
There were historical moments at the General Assembly of Parliament which gathered extraordinarily by the call of the Chairman of the Parliament İsmail Kahraman on Saturday, July 16th. With the attendance of four parties, a joint proclamation was published. After a moment of silence and the national anthem, Chairman of the Parliament İsmail Kahraman read the rest of the Turkish national anthem. Chairman Kahraman said, “Those who made our nation suffer this pain will be punished in the way they deserve. The veteran assembly has been bombed. Components that were fed and armed by the people put their guns against our nation’s chest. I hereby wish my nation a fast recovery and pray to god that we do not experience such a dark agenda ever again. Now is the time to keep our reason without losing anything from our decisiveness, it is the time to work for solutions and bind up wounds. The parliament was on a democracy watch last night. And here today we will read the notice of our four parties together, and we will submit it to the community. As written on our wall, sovereignty rests unconditionally with the nation, and the people shouted it out.”
Noting that a section of the Parliament damaged by the bombs was going to be preserved as a museum, Chairman of the Assembly İsmail Kahraman reminisced the night of July 15 in the opening of parliament in October, and said, “We fulfilled our duty of protecting sovereignty of the nation under the bombs dropped on us, and became the Veteran Assembly for the second time.”
